LPL Spring Split Preview

When a region of bloodthirsty teams who have become used to winning in recent years are bested at the World Championship (Worlds) by the LCK, you can imagine that coming into the first international tournament of the year, the Mid-Season Invitational, these teams are going to be hungry to take back the throne.

So, whether you’re excited to see Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk make his debut, you’re a fan of the storied organisation Ninjas in Pyjamas as they officially get their name on the Rift in the LPL for the first time, or just ready to see Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok play Top-laner for another spectacular year, the LPL has a little something for everyone.

Superteams and playoff dreams

Since the rumours began during the offseason regarding the roster that JD Gaming (JDG) were putting together, it’s been widely considered that this team would stand out from the pack as the dominant force in the LPL – a “superteam” of sorts.

[JDG 2023 Roster Announcement]

Manager：Jasper
Head Coach：Homme
Assistant Coach: Viod
Analyst: Vus5o
Team Leader: Huge
Translator: HunnyPark

Top: 369
Jungle: Kanavi
Mid: Knight
Mid: LZQ
ADC: @RulereluR
Support: Missing#JDGWIN https://t.co/rwt0ElR4yH
— JD Gaming (@JDGaming) December 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/JDGaming/status/1603781419230429184?s=20&t=pRYQRQdVDsAI4kWk3phsRAhttps://twitter.com/JDGaming/status/1603781419230429184?s=20&t=pRYQRQdVDsAI4kWk3phsRAhttps://twitter.com/JDGamin

Bai “369” Jia-Hao is known to have never missed playoffs since the beginning of his time in the LPL and is widely considered to be the biggest contender to the LCK’s Choi “Zeus” Woo-je from T1. His synergy with returning Jungler Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok, who is known for his incredibly kill-hungry playstyle, made last year’s JDG’s topside look like an unstoppable force.

If their topside is an unstoppable force, their new Mid-laner Zhuo “Knight” Ding is an immovable object. His insane base defence on Sylas in the previous year has him known in the west for his performance on the champion, and he is widely considered one of the best Mid-Laners in the world, racking up the record for most solo kills in a split (35 during the LPL Summer split in 2021).

If that wasn’t enough, they also have Nautilus specialist Lou “Missing” Yun-Feng supporting the 2017 Worlds MVP and last year’s semi-finalist with Gen.G, Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk. On paper, this team poses an unmatched threat and will likely dominate for the entire year in 2023.

If anyone could compete with this team, though, it would be Top Esports (TES). Top Esports lost “Knight” and gained Song “Rookie” Eui-jin, known for being one of the best laners the game has ever seen, winning Worlds with IG in 2018. The Mid-laner and four-time LPL MVP has partnered up with Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang, 2019’s Worlds MVP Jungler.

The aggression from “Tian” is well-facilitated by the impressive laning from “Rookie”, giving him free reign to move onto side-lanes and invade his opposing Jungler. Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo – another member of the Worlds-winning IG roster – remains with Top Esports this year and is thus re-united with “Rookie”.

The raw talent and name power on this team has people rating them as the projected second-best team in the league, especially as they also have promising talent Yu “Qingtian” Zi-Han – a player scouted by Young Miracles (the academy team known for finding future big talents such as Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei, “Tian”, and “Knight”).

The level of consistency “Rookie” brings to any team is generally considered enough, but with all these other players, TES should be a big threat on the international stage, provided that 100 Thieves’ Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng stays at home again this year.

After the top two, there’s a trio of teams that would probably be considered capable of providing a substantial enough of a challenge for a top spot in the LPL playoffs.

One such team is Weibo gaming, who are re-uniting Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao and Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan, both former MSI champions who played for RNG. With Top-lane legend Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok and the side-laning prowess of “Xiaohu”, it’ll be hard to match this team.

RNG are another team; however, after losing “Xiahou” it’s a worry whether or not they’ll be able to compete with the best again. I do think that as long as Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming can settle his contract negotiations and Lin “Tangyuan” Yu-Hong can step up, they can still put in a decent performance.

The final team of the trio is BLG, the winners of the Demacia Cup in 2022. They are a top strongside team with Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin and Peng “Xun” Li-Xun (a Jungler who is used to playing with “TheShy”). There is a formula for success available to them, provided they play with focus on their topside and allow Zeng “Yagao” Qi to facilitate that on the mage picks he’s known for.

Warmly welcome BLG.Uzi to #BLG !
Uzi is baaaaaaaaaaack!!! pic.twitter.com/oI0O5AsWAJ

— Bilibili Gaming (@BilibiliGaming) December 15, 2021

Standing out from the pack

With there being 17 teams in the LPL, it’s easy to go missing in the middle of the pack. Everybody remembers TES and JDG for both going 14-2 in the Summer split of last year, in the same way that we can’t forget Team WE going 0-16 in the very same split. So, while we can expect JDG and TES to be at the top and we can expect Ultra Prime, Rare Atom, and LGD to be near the bottom, what teams are likely to flesh out the 10-team playoff bracket?

ALL SET!

Meet the 2023 #LPL Spring teams. pic.twitter.com/0VBByDeCj9

— LPL (@lplenglish) January 11, 2023

The storied organisation Ninjas in Pyjamas, known for holding the longest professional game-winning streak at 87 maps uncontested on LAN in CS:GO, have bought out Victory Five’s LPL spot. Although the organisation merged with Victory Five in August of 2021, the branding only matches as of this year.

Losing “Rookie”, “Karsa” and Guo “ppgod” Peng was quite a big blow for the team; however, when standing in for “Rookie” at the start of the Summer split, Tan “Dream” Wen-Xiang proved he could go toe-to-toe with some of the league’s best. I’m confident that he’ll have what it takes to get his team to the playoffs.

Furthermore, Li “Invincible” Xiao-Bing has been hyped up, notably by players such as Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo of Team Vitality (a former FPX player who holds a professional 10-0 record in the LPL). It will be exciting to see whether he can live up to the praise and if he can, where this could lead this roster.

Having spent a decent amount to procure IG’s Top-laner, Tang “Zika” Hua-Yu, LNG seem confident of having a strong topside of the map. Lee “Scout” Ye-chan (Worlds Champion in 2021 with EDG), will be paired with Jungler Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong, who is regarded as one of the best Junglers to ever come out of Korea. If this team can synergise well, they could make it to the playoffs and potentially do some damage there. Especially if the relatively unknown Li “LP” Fei can come out of the gates swinging.